The capital limit is £6k but you're required to contact the DWP once your capital reaches £5.5k and there are some murmurings online that this indicates the DWP presume it likely you have more than £5.5k be it cash under the mattress etc.

Hi there, I am on ESA and having been diligently saving I am very fortunate to have almost £5500 in capital. I understand that once I do have £5500 in capital I must inform the DWP. I know this is stating the obvious but I presume that any income I receive I am free to spend however I like and there's nothing the DWP can do about this. The key point being that income only becomes capital following the period within which it is paid. So for example, my ESA payments are made on a fortnightly basis, therefore they only become capital after two weeks have passed from payment. This situation is complicated by the fact that I also receive DLA which is paid every four weeks, so I would presume it's possible for me to have this DLA payment in my account for four weeks before it's deemed part of my capital. I'm just concerned because I know how useless the DWP is generally, especially the advisors on the telephone and I expect they won't understand how this works. I just don't want to end up having to take the DWP to court as I continue to save up.

I agree. My non-profit work will involve working with old people, unfortunately the coronavirus has kinda put paid to the idea, so unlikely I'd be able to do anything other than set the thing up for the meantime.

Also I think I would rather set up a CiC, it's easier and as it would be a limited company, it would make things easier to diversify later when I was more able to work. I can tell from reading online that the moment you mention setting up a company, the reaction from the DWP is rather negative.

Thank you for the info. I forgot to add that I wouldn't be doing this on my own and it would probably take quite a bit of time, maybe a year or so I imagine.

Hi, I'm currently in the ESA support group. I'm quite well educated and would like to make constructive use of this free time I have. Whilst I understand I am allowed to do permitted work, I do not trust the DWP, I feel like any work I do will be used against me at my next assessment. There is some charitable work I'd like to do which is not covered by any charities I can find locally to me. 1: How would setting up the charity be seen by the DWP? Would they class this as volunteering, work etc? 2: How would they likely view me becoming a trustee of this charity? 3: Any work I do for the chairty would be voluntary work I assume? I understand that I would have to contact the DWP as doing any of this would be a change in circumstances I presume. Can I just say I'm doing voluntary work? I'm happy to tell them about the volunteering I'd be doing I'd just rather not have to explain all of the above, like becoming a trustee or setting up the charity itself.

Interesting article, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/30/a4e-welfare-work-company-workers-sentenced-fraud

Hi guys, Just had a quick thought and wondered if anyone could clarify if there may be a legal avenue here. I noticed that many providers of services to the DWP make use of this fund. Is there a case to be made that t he use of sanctions and the behaviour of some of these companies is at least not in the spirit of the European Social Fund agenda? I don't really know much about European law, I understand though that you generally have to exhaust things here before going up a level but surely there must be a way to raise this there. I'm email my MEP about the behaviour of some organisations who run the work programme, but just wondered if any of you could give any insights.